Welcome to Gaia! ::

He shrugged. "Very few people recognize it, I suppose. Not exactly a good place to go, if you're Muted--normal, I mean." Aska listened attentively to her description, offering a smile again at the description of Earth. It sounded like home--but then, a lot of places did, when you boiled it all down. "It sounds nice," he said, with a smile that was fairly more honest.

Aska's smile faded, and then he sighed. "I do, a bit. It was home," he said, by way of explanation.

"I do furniture, mostly. Beds, desks, chairs. I don't do upholstery, really, but I've learned since I came here." He paused, rubbing his hands down his thighs to smooth out imaginary wrinkles. "I used to do canvas frames for paintings. But if it's got to do with wood, I can handle it."

Wood, he says, Althai repeated huffily. "There's just not a very big market for handmade furniture, with all the stores around. I work mostly in a store for that, and sell paintings." He smiled a bit tightly. "I'm quite good at that."

He smiled, a bit embarrassed. "Yes. Not very well, I'm afraid. But my mother taught me painting and my uncles taught me carpentry, and that's enough to get by." The dark-haired man held up his hands, grinning a bit bitterly. "I'm very talented with my hands, do you understand? It's something you need if you're Muted."

Aska grinned right back, biting back a laugh. This was familiar--something he remembered from night after night in local taverns--even if he knew it wouldn't follow the path it had before. "No, my lady, it is certainly not. But if you don't mind, I'll have to decline to demonstrate this evening."

He couldn't quite muster the full laugh, not after smothering it, but he smiled just a little wider. "Do you tease everyone you meet this way," he asked, tucking his hands into his pockets very carefully, as if to say that he had no intention of doing anything else with them that evening. It was true; he'd been on his way home, mind-GPS nonwithstanding. "Is that a goddess thing?"

Althai, he wondered, tipping his head a bit. The god remained silent, though he could hear an odd snicker or two. "It's not going to be a very pleasant denouement for me, is it," he asked, sounding quite resigned. It would be just his luck to end up between a rock (a literal rock, in his chest) and a hard place (metaphorically). "Do you mind if I ask what your domain is, milady?"

Where was it? Aska put a hand to his chin and considered for a moment, dark curls falling into his face. It really was impressive, the feats of legerdemain this goddess seemed to perform like they were the air she breathed. Which, considering she called herself a Trickster, they might well be. He had no way of knowing.

"I can't say for sure," he said, thoughtfully, but then he reached out to tap Tien's right hand. "This one seems as likely as the other, I think."

He checked his pockets, and laughed. "I'm not going to ask how you did that," he said, ruefully, as he pulled the coin out from among the various paraphernalia that came with living his lifestyle--keys, mostly, and a debit card that he rarely used. "But it was amazing." He held the coin out to her, that self-deprecating grin on his face still. He'd always been the one getting shown up by greater talents; it was something he was well used to, and didn't resent.

Tell her she's a showoff, said Althai eagerly from inside Aska's head, and Aska smothered a laugh with his palm. He most certainly would not do that. It seemed like a one-way ticket to A Bad Start-Ville, courtesy of one insensitive a** of a god.

Oh no. Aska would so not go there.